Thread: Wrong problem focus of fatal accidents, newspaper editor say

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Wrong problem focus of fatal accidents, newspaper editor says

04:39 PM EST on Monday, December 5, 2005
By JOHN ROMERO / 6NEWS


There is more fallout from the fatal wreck on Interstate 485 last month that killed a UNC-Charlotte freshman. Police said the driver who caused the accident is an undocumented immigrant who was drunk at the time of the crash.

A provocative article in a Charlotte Spanish language newspaper Monday tries to turn the tables on the debate by pointing to a wreck on I-85 last week. In that wreck a Hispanic youth died in an accident caused by a white motorist who had allegedly been drinking.

The article is written in the Spanish language weekly Mi Gente, which hit newsstands Monday. The article said the fatal wrong way wreck allegedly caused by an illegal immigrant is a tragedy.

The headline is in Spanish, but the message is clear that drinking and driving is a problem that knows no one language.

“Drinking and driving is not an immigrant issue,� said Raphael Prieto, editor of Mi Gente es Algo Differente. “It's an issue of driving under the influence.�

Two weeks ago, an undocumented immigrant allegedly caused a wreck that killed student Min Chang on I-485. Prieto said the accident caused a backlash.

“All the sentiment was anti-immigrant,� he said.

Last Thursday another wrong way collision happened on I-85.

“Everyone was very concerned in the community that the driver was Hispanic,� Prieto said.

It turns out; the victim was an immigrant from Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. He was in the country legally. He left behind a young wife and child. The driver going the wrong way was white and troopers said he was drinking.

Prieto said politicians like Congresswoman Sue Myrick turned the Chang accident and a similar crash that killed Scott Garnder into political weapons.

“They have used these as a tool against immigrants, and especially undocumented immigrants,� Prieto said.

The attack, according to Prieto, should be on drinking and driving.

“It points a lesson against drinking and driving,� he said. “It is not a lesson of documented or undocumented legal or illegal. It's the issue of drinking and driving.�

Damn,

I can't even write a letter to the editor on this because it is a TV station.

W

Of COURSE, it's about drinking and driving BUT the number of DUI deaths in North Carolina recently seem to be caused by a disproporionate number of Hispanic ILLEGALS or even LEGALS. It seems to me that they have serious problems with alcoholism. AND, the POINT is that, no matter how many DUI accidents are caused by "WHITES", as the articles states, the ones that could have been AVOIDED ARE THE ONES THAT COUNT and, if you subtract the number of illegals from the equation, you would certainly have a LOT FEWER accidents--both fatal and otherwise. We are talking about PREVENTABLE accidents here so that number would drastically decrease if those ILLEGALS weren't HERE.

W, no need for a letter to the editor. Click "discuss it" and let em have it!